GLOCK Gen 4 vs Gen 5 Handgun Differences – What Are They?

Author: Jeremy of Gundose.com gives us a break down of the GLOCK Gen 4 vs the new GLOCK Gen 5 pistol differences.

The new for 2017 , Glock Gen 5 HandgunGundose.com

USA –-(Ammoland.com)- We have now seen the new Gen 5 Glocks pistols and you might be wondering what the difference is between the GLOCK gen 4 and GLOCK gen 5 handgun models.

At first glance, you may think not a whole lot but that has always been the case with Glock models. Nothing much really changes and what does, is usually very minor. But for those diehard fans, you will notice those Aesthetic changes rather quickly.

Let’s break it down to the nuts and bolts and go over what exactly has changed between these two Glock model gernerations.

According to Glock, there are 35 new or upgrade parts on the Gen 5 model Glock so let’s start with the most obvious being that the finger grooves have been removed. Based on demand, it seems that was one of the bigger requests by the majority. It’s one of those things you either love or hate. I’ve always been a fan of “grip” and finger grooves never bothered me. In-fact, I often times get a good frame stipple done for added texture and grip.

The flared mag-well is another aesthetic change you will notice at first glance. It’s not meant for competition shooting, however it will surely help those who compete ensuring faster reloading or in high stress situations when time is of the essence.

The Gen 5 Glocks ship with Ameriglo GLOCK Spartan Operator night sights up from polymer sights. (Which are still available) This is ideal for low light shooting and accuracy.

One thing most people thought the Gen 5 Glock would have is front serrations. While it looks great, Glock has reverted back on this detail which I think is more ideal for people who like to customize their Glock slides. You will also notice a more rounded front end on the Gen 5 Glock. Furthermore, there is no more locking block pin. Glock will now revert to using a two pin system with all Gen 5 models.

GLOCK Gen 5 Handgun Details

Left handed shooters will be happy to know that the slide stop is now ambidextrous and easily accessible on both sides of the glock Gen 5 models. Sorry to say, that is the only good news I have for left handed shooters for the Gen 5.

I’m a Glock fanboy and have always loved Glock. But at first glance, I had to ask “what makes the G5 a game changer for Glock?” So let’s dive a little deeper.

Above is a view of the Glock 17 Gen 5 next to a Glock 34 Gen 4. The order in the picture is a bit mixed up, but this is how it goes: 17 frame, 34 slide, 17 slide, and 34 frame.

Glock has coated all Gen 5 Glock handguns with a new nDLC finish which is supposed to last longer and protect against the elements better than previous generations. “Tougher and more durable”. That’s good for people who compete and use their Glock outside a lot.

The all new Glock Marksman Barrel! (GMB) apparently has better rifling for improved accuracy. Everyone always wants better accuracy when shooting and this is one of the better improvements I’ve seen so far.

Rolling into a list of internal changes, here are some of the more notable differences.

Firing pin has been reshaped to more of a square edge with ramping on both sides.

Gen 3 and 4 magazines will still fit the Gen 5 model.

The trigger return spring in the Gen 5 has been replaced and moved inside the mechanism housing.

Overall, not a bad list of upgrades. I think GLOCK delivered a good Gen 5 model especially with the GMB barrel. The standard MSRP is a respectable $565 (G19 ~ $559.00 online) which closely compares to most newer Gen 4 models on the market.

I own both; my colt 1911 isn’t 1/2 the gun my gen 4 is, and after this article I suspect the gen 5 will make that an even bigger gap. 1911 snobs make me want to sell the gun despite its sentimental value, maybe I’ll give it to my grandpa.

Hello. I am a 71 year old woman who is interested in purchasing a Glock. I had a Glock 17 about 15 years ago for about a year then sold it. I used it for target practice and was moving to be close to my grandchildren and did not want a gun around because of them. Can any of you suggest a Glock that would be good for a 71 year old woman who just wants it for protection? I plan on taking a concealed weapon class and also practicing at a gun range. I know nothing about guns but I liked my Glock when I had it.

Based on your statement, the Alpha Hotel is not the Glock owner’s. More so the individual(s) who makes the provacative and ignorant statement. Real men utilize the tools they know that works for them the best. NOT based on ignorant individual’s statement. Research, due diligence in comparative testing to reach a conclusion on the best tool to use for a particular need or scenario. I own many makes and models and each have a requirement for the roles for which they are applied for. Manhood based on a 1911 model?….wow????????

Bought a 19X about two months ago. I’ve put about a thousand rounds through it- mostly Atlanta Ammo fodder. So far, I’ve had one failure to feed but no other problems. The magazine on that issue was very dirty- I was interested to see if it was gonna puke right outta the box. So far, I’m impressed, line up the sights, squeeze the trigger, it barks- just like it was designed to do. Aren’t any mysteries in Glocks. In all honesty- if you stay from the cheaply made guns, and you know who they are, it’s pretty easy to find a reliable, relatively accurate gun.

Hopefully they have fixed the problem of catastrophic destruction of the glock with a new barrel. A cert buddy of mine had shot some lead gas checked bullets a few days before a match. His glock. 40 call blew into more pieces than could be found. Barrel split and broke at chamber, frame and slide blew apart, be got some shrapnel in hand and shooting glasses. The front sight was about the only thing that survived.

Do not shoot lead in glocks, dont shoot without proper protection. I have a glock, but not a fanboy. Not trying to tear them down, but I myself would probably not carry one concealed or for duty.
I mean, mine evidently didnt get the safety or external hammer I keep hearing being cocked and clicked off in the movies….. this line bs…

Haven’t had any ammo issues with my Gen5….. There are many reasons semi’s can have feed issues so I’d run through those first…. You may have a grip issue (similar to
limp wristing) due to it’s slimmer grip – like try the two backstraps and see if that tells you anything….. Haven’t heard anything from the general shooters about feed problems…..
Good Luck…

I had Lonewolf machine my G-19 Gen 5 slide to mount my Type 2 RMR…. Part of their “Slidemelt” machine work ($99.00) includes an option to have your sights relocated to the other side of the RMR… I added a set of Ameriglo tall suppressor night sights for back-up sights…. Having now shot both fixed sight configurations I can see how having the rear sight on the other side makes picking up the red dot much easier and quicker….. So far this is really working for me….
Nothing really stands out that is different between the Gen 4 & Gen 5 besides being able to pick up the dot faster with the rear sight on the other side of the RMR…. Accuracy is a little better with hopes of improving as I get more used to this new pistol… Recoil feels the same…. I had to add the small grip back strap to get a full grip – Strap not needed on the Gen 4…. Most probably because it is minus finger grooves….. Once I get a couple of classes under my belt I’ll have a better feel concerning the 35 improvements made to the Gen 5 over the Gen 4……

For the folks looking for Blue Label pricing on the Glocks, take a look at GT Distributors, Austin, TX. Not all Blue Label dealers price their firearms the same. GT is one of the cheapest. (https://www.gtdist.com/)

It’s a whole bunch of typos apparently… in the same word. How are you gonna claim that’s a typo when you swapped one vowel for a different one, a ‘c’ for an ‘s’ and dropped the same letter you’d expect a child to neglect? I know you’re feeble and withering away and everything, but your shaking liver-spotted hands make for a pathetic excuse

Hahaa. We are living in a golden age of grandpas saying STFU pussy on the internet. You’re funny, man, but don’t spill your prune juice on the keyboard getting all worked up like this. With regard to your question, though–which evidently means you’ve gone ahead and dropped any pretense of a “typo”– the ‘s’ is in the word ‘compensate’. Come on, man. You really couldn’t have figured that one out?

Mack, you are a disrespectful little prick and you obviously have some major issues. These (likely) stem from personal insecurities – possibly a tiny penis or impotence. You should probably seek medical guidance before your need to appear intelligent causes you to have one of these angry, condescending episodes in person and someone gives you a much needed, well deserved ass stomp’n. Anyone with even the slightest intelligence had no problem understanding exactly what the gentleman meant.

Willie:
Hang on, dude. I never made the claim that his meaning couldn’t be deciphered; I simply gave him a blast of shit for having such horrific spelling at his age (a trait far more common in younger folks). But really, to spell that poorly in your 60s is one thing, but then to lie and say it was a typo? So he’s both dishonest and somewhat illiterate, but you’ve jumped to his defense like he’s Mr. Rogers and not an asshole every bit as vulgar as the guy criticizing him. Yet here you are, white knighting like tomorrow is judgement day and offering your best Freudian barbs to the guy who–at the very least–wouldn’t tell a blatant lie to mask a minor spelling mistake.

Mack
Ummmm, two things. Who was the 64 year old that posted…read his name! Then…wait for it. Who said it was a misspelling? Now who looks dishonest and illiterate…you. No wonder you’re alone and your family hates you!!!

You are obviously the illiterate one stating that an “s” or a “c” are vowels. So I would “STFU” and respect your elders. My friends 4 year old knows what a vowel is. Oh and do not think for a second that I myself am what you consider to be old because I am not even 25.

Mack,
For God’s sake, grow up and show people a bit of respect. If you can’t show other people respect, you will never have any. And, some of the old boys at our gun club could likely show you a thing or two about shooting, judging by the area clubs league competition scores.
It was most likely caused by Spell Check.

I can’t believe you even brought that up much less make it into a big deal. I love how rude the young people have become. It warms my heart. Respecting elders went out the window when Facebook went in.

Good Lord, you folks need a hug.
A quick recap: I criticize a middle aged man for an atrocious misspelling of a somewhat uncommon word, and do so rudely. Next, the good Samaritans tell me to “shut the f uck up, pussy”, inform me that my dear sweet mother is at that very moment sucking cock (and one belonging to someone here!), am told that my family hates me, I deserve to be beaten, have a tiny penis and am impotent (probably, anyway), and then tell me I am…disrespectful.
Speaking of illiteracy, did you guys never cover ‘irony’ in English class?

Mack b is a glowing example of what is wrong with the Internet, people who think that being behind a keyboard is a license to be uncivil and petty. People like these add nothing to civil discourse as they are only feeding their own pathetic inferiority complex.

Well, I don’t usually comment on pages. More for reading than caring too much about the ignorance spouted on the internet by those who feel safe behind a screen, disrespecting people to make themselves feel superior to SOMEONE THEY DO NOT EVEN KNOW. Mack, this is somebody’s grandfather. And truth be told, you wouldn’t have the balls to speak to someone of his age like that in person for simply misspelling a word. He did nothing to harm you. In any way. I’ll quote Maynard James Keenan when saying “You speak like someone who has never been smacked in the fucking mouth. That’s okay I have the remedy” You ever do get the stones to actually start acting like your internet persona you use to cover up how beta and weak you are in the real solid world, you won’t make it far. Even if you do get away with it a time or two, someone is going to come along and give you that much needed ass whooping your parents were not wise enough to provide for you. Get your hands off of your keys, go outside, and work on your obvious social complexes in a positive way. Don’t be just another stereotype of our generation. To the original poster Mr.Weber, I will apologize on behalf of what is easily recognizable as a millennial. We aren’t all disrespectful assholes. Thank you for taking the time to write your opinion and share what you felt was relevant to the subject. Now, someone of similar age with a similar issue, or someone that knows a person with them, has an idea of how the finger grooves and compensation helps with that issue. Have a nice everything sir, and good move on ignoring the internet troll that wasn’t intelligent enough to realize you were ignoring him in the first place….

Wow, Mack is a fucking douche. His life must be really shitty for him to attack a man over his age and a stupid typo. Get over yourself man, seriously chill. It’s really sad to see a gun owner acting like that, we are usually the nicest kind of people. You should sell all your guns and never come to a range with an attitude like that. Please don’t embarrass our community like this anymore, “Mack”

Very amusing thread. Mr. Weber’s original and ONLY post was 7+ months ago. Very unlikely he saw your reply or any of the back and forth bitch-slapping that has occurred since. The dramatic irony warms my heart.

Fixing to buy my first handgun ever at age 52. I am looking at the GLOCK 17 and trying to figure out if the gen 5 is worth $60 bucks over the gen 4 if anyone cares to comment. The gen4 is $499, gen5 $559 Thanks much! Anybody’s opinion outweighs mine at this point!

If you are curent or retired military or law enforcement you can buy the “blue label” Glocks for a lot less. A new Glock 17, Gen 5 is only $398.20 but possibly more depending on niight sights, etc. You can either buy online direct from Glock or at a Glock “blue label” dealer. I hope this helps out with the price.

I have a gen 3 19, a hopped up 17 and a brand new 34 MOS. The Gen 4 17 is my favorite so far. It has Zev Full Fulcrum trigger kit and Trijicon HD sights and Talon grips. I love Glock, but their triggers are bad for me. I prefer the flat face and adjustability of Zev. I have the same set up on my 19 and am waiting on a reply from them on their Gen 5 product.

A few days ago I was shopping for a compact 9mm double stack pistol. I compared the Gen4, Gen5 Glocks and the HK VP9 SK. Best trigger goes to the VP9 SK, best ergonomics goes to VP9 SK. Glocks still remain very popular, but in the $550 to $600 price point they are about $100 overpriced. I bought the HK VP9 SK knowing I bought the best gun.

But you gotta look at the mags too.Glocks are cheap ,HK are expensive.Magazines cause you to have so much money into a gun.Sometimes it is worth to deal with the Glock because of that and resale is much quicker too.

Gen 5 barrels are a little different where the recoil spring connects. Only Gen 5 barrel that is compatible with Gen 4 and 3 is the G19. All other Gen 5’s 34 / 17 / 26 need Gen 5 barrels and will not work in Gen 4 or 3.

I just bought a Gen 5 and I think I am going to like it very much. I think with the upgrades it is better than the Gen 4 which I also have. The differences between the Gen 4 and Gen 5 many will see as marginal. That is just a testament to how great the Gen 4 was to begin with. That new style barrel didn’t improve my shooting that much, but I am not blaming that on my new pistol; that one is on me. The only upgrade the Gen 5 needs now in my opinion is a few finger groves : )
Maybe they could come up with a front strap to go along with the back strap that would make the groves optional : )

I really love my Glock 19 Gen. 4, because it is so accurate and light weight. I used my Glock 19 when I was in the Alaska State Defense Force – Alaska State Guard – Military Police Brigade with 15 round magazines. My MP Associates almost all were Kimber 1911 .45 ACP 7 shot magazines with one bullet in the pipe total of 8 shots. They always thought it was a great idea that three or four of us were shooting Glock 17 9mm, Glock 19 9mm, and or Glock 21 .45 ACP with double stack 15 round magazines to keep the enemies heads down while the Kimber Shooters were reloading magazines or as we called it “GASING UP”. Our soldier who shot Glock 21 was an expert shot and often out shot the Kimber 1911 MP’s.

Being a current active duty soldier, I can’t tell you how much I hate MP’s. Please tell me how you sleep at night knowing you joined the military with the intention of F**king over those that actually joined to serve their country?

I like the Gen 4 grip better. The Gen 5 reminds me of my Gen 1. Same grip. I don’t see the mag well making that much of a difference. Everything else the article mentions except the barrel is not a big deal.

I picked up a Gen 5 G19, Yesterday, it came with night sights, $609.00 all my other Glocks are Gen 4’s, and they’re great, but I have to admit this new 19 Gen 5 is really nice, the nights are great, no finger grooves are also nice, it allows my hand a more full grip on the gun, as well as the texturing on the grip, I doubt I will need any talon grip tape. I find the trigger to be good as is, that’s a big improvement IMHO, THE MELTING/BULLDOZE on the slide is nice, but for me being a lefty, what really impressed me was the addition of an AMBI SAFETY, that actually works with ease, my other Glock 19 Gen 4 has Crimson Trace laser wrap around grips and Heine night sights, ghost 3.5 trigger and a steel guide rod, and it has been a house gun, I’m leaving my new Gen 5 G 19 stock, because at this point I don’t see any need to add a thing, it’s sleek and has everything going for it just as is, I forgot to mention the new barrel, it to is supposed to me better and more accurate, but I can’t give any info on that until I give this gun a work out, but I can’t see that there will be any issues, the slide is tight and smooth when racking, I’m looking forward to a fun day at the range…